Anthropogenic Marine Debris (AMD), especially persistent buoyant plastics, has become a vector for dispersal of both coastal and pelagic species across oceans, enabling colonization of oceanic gyres and distant coastlines, and giving rise to the ‘neopelagic’ community. This study explored how stranding time impacts the epiplastic community by comparing debris collected at sea (FMD), newly stranded (NS; ≤24 h), and older stranded debris (NNS) on Madeira’s coast to assess result consistency when sampling only NNS. Ninety debris items (14 FMD, 18 NS, 58 NNS) were analyzed, with taxa classified as sessile or mobile. FMD hosted the richest and most abundant mobile communities, significantly higher than NNS (p < 0.001), while NS had intermediate levels. Community composition varied by debris type, influenced by the relative richness of mobile and sessile fauna. The greatest difference was between FMD and NNS (64.6%), driven by fewer mobile taxa (e.g., Amphipoda, Isopoda) and more sessile taxa (e.g., Bryozoa, Sabellida). Eleven species were categorized as potential or non-indigenous species (NIS), most detected only on FMD. Future bioinvasion monitoring frameworks must consider and integrate mobile components to offer a more complete and accurate understanding, as these findings emphasize the role of stranding time in shaping community composition.
promotor/supervisor feedback
nothing yet
